おかえりなさい: Okaerinasai
by Mononoke-hime x sukai kurora
Summary: Himura Kenshin had a daughter named Kiyo, who born in the fifteenth year of Meiji. How would Himura Kiyo change the outcome of "Reflection?" Any mistakes are my own.
1. Chapter 1

Himura Kiyo sat silently, waiting for her mother. She heard her mother tell Yahiko-san that her father was coming home. Kiyo had smiled at the news. Her father had been gone for four long years to fight in a war he didn't want to fight. _"He had made a promise to the Meiji government,"_ her mother, Himura Kaoru, had told her more than once. _"That is why he is fighting in a war that he does not want to fight in." _When her mother had first told her this, Kiyo had been eight years old and hadn't understood. Now she was ten years old, and understood the promise her father had made years ago to the Meiji government and why he had made that promise._"Your father was your age when he began to study the swordsmanship of Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryu," _her mother had told her yesterday after telling her that her father would be coming home. _"Four years later, when he was fourteen years old, he left his master to fight in the Bakumastu. The war would have been lost without your father, and became known as Hitokiri Battousai." _Kiyo had shuddered at her father's name during the horrible war that he didn't speak of. She knew that his name meant Battousai the manslayer. Closing her eyes, Kiyo tried to imagine her father slaughtering nameless samurai and swordsman alike, but couldn't. Her father was too gentle for such things.

Himura Kenji, her older brother, however, was fascinated by their father's past. He relished their father's former raw strength and mercilessness, and seemed to resent the calm and gentle man who he was now. Kenji wanted to learn Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryu, the swordsmanship of Hitokiri Battousai, not Kamiya-kassin-ryū, their mother's swordsmanship. It pained Kiyo and her mother more than he would ever know. Kiyo once asked Kenji what he wanted with Hiten-Mitsurugi Ryu, and had replied hotly, _"I want to find what true strength is." _Although Kenji was four years older than her, Kiyo already knew what true strength was. Her mother, father, Megumi-san, and Yahiko-san knew what true strength was as well, but Kenji wanted to know the past. He wanted to know why his father had been so feared during the Bakumatsu more than thirty years ago. That was why when he left to find their father's master Hiko Seijūrō in Kyoto, Kiyo wasn't surprised.

Kiyo wanted her father and nothing else. He was all she needed. A faint smile appeared on her lips when she remembered all the times she and her mother had welcomed her father home after his travels. Kenji was notably absent. But Himura Kenshin always had a smile on his face as he was welcomed by his mother and daughter. Kiyo vaguely heard her mother call for her, but stayed for a moment. _I wish you would come, Kenji, _she thought. _Today is the twenty-sixth year of Meiji, 1893. You were born in the twelfth year, and I the fifteenth. Our mother and father were born during a war, in a time of heartbreak and bloodshed. That time has passed. _Kiyo's mother was relieved to see her daughter beside her, and together they walked the harbor where they would reunite with their family member. _Today is day of peace, Kenji. Can't you see what our father sacrificed a part of himself for?_


	2. Chapter 2

Hirmura Kiyo stayed beside her mother. Her mother was calm, her lips betraying a hint of a smile. Her mother was happy. For four long years Himura Kaoru did her best to overshadow her person sorrow with her children. Kiyo was eight when her father left to fight in the war; Kenji was ten. Their mother had trained them with her own students in the art of _kendo_. From the moment their hands had grasped a blade, Kiyo knew that she inherited her father's genius with the sword, more than her older brother would, much to his displeasure and envy. Then one day when Kiyo was nine and Kenji was thirteen, the older boy had wanted their training to stop. However, she and Kenji trained separately with Yahiko-san that following year. That was the day when their mother had listlessly waited for their father to come home again, listening to the wind chimes and sitting on the tatami mats. Kiyo knew that today was the day that her mother would come out of her shell and become the fierce woman that Hirmura Kenshin had fallen in love with.

Kiyo felt her gaze wander from her mother to the ships across the harbor. Which one would her father be on? Would he hold her mother's hands in his own and smile, saying _"tadaima?" _Her mother had waited for this moment for four long years, as had Yahiko-san and Megumi-san. Kiyo had waited for this moment as well. It pained her that her brother, her _oniisan, _was not here to see his father come home. She recalled the last words that he had told her. Their parting still stung.

"_I must make my own legend, Kiyo. I am the same age as our father was when he left his master to join the Bakumatsu." His blue eyes narrowed as a stared at the wooden sword in his hand. "Our father didn't become stronger from wooden swords. He became strong from the swords of Edo era." He had thrown the sword at Kiyo's feet. "He became strong and became a legend."_

"_He didn't want to become a legend, Kenji."Kiyo tried to make her voice strong, but her voice was high-pitched and was weak. "He wanted to live in an era of peace and happiness. He didn't know happiness until he met Tomoe-san." She saw Kenji's eyes narrow at the mention at their father's first wife. He, unlike her, didn't want to acknowledge that their father had loved another woman. "He didn't care for strength. He only wanted to protect. Kenji, by leaving us to Hiko Seijūrū, you will be sacrificing our father's pain and sorrow he had to endure to give us peace. We live in peace, _onnisan_. What do you desire?"_

_Kenji's eyes met Kiyo's own eyes. "I desire true strength." Then he walked away from her and from Tokyo. Kiyo didn't stop her brother._

Kiyo felt her mother's arm lightly on her shoulder. Kiyo slightly started, looking up from her thoughts. Her father was walking towards them. His bright red hair was now a shade darker compared to when Kiyo had last seen him. There were also faint lines lining his jaw. But there was a smile on his face as he spied his wife and daughter. He carried a knapsack on his shoulder.

"_Okearinasai, Shinta."_ Kiyo's mother gently stroked her father's face.

"_Tadaima," _was his faint reply. He had tears in his eyes.

Kiyo wondered who Shinta was. Her father's name was Kenshin, wasn't it? She saw his smile and saw him kiss her mother gently on the cheek. She had a sudden thought. Was Shinta her father's actual name? It was a de facto tradition for samurai and swordsmen alike to adopt more fitting names that the ones they were given at birth. Shinta, she knew, meant _heart_ or _spirit_, and Kenshin meant _heart of sword_. She hoped that Hiko Seijūrō wouldn't change her brother's name. Kenji's name simply meant _twice as wise. _Her own name meant purity, _"a beautiful name for a girl," _her mother had told her.

"Kiyo." Her father's voice was as soft as the grass and faint as the wind. She looked at her father, and saw his smile. He seemed very happy, and Kiyo echoed her mother's greeting.

"_Okearinasai, Ōtosan."_


	3. Chapter 3

Kiyo and her father walked ahead of her mother. Her mother was walking slightly behind, and her eyes seemed to be drinking her surroundings. When Kiyo looked back in concern, the older woman smiled reassuringly. Somehow her mother seemed sad, although Kiyo had no idea why.

_"Ōtosan, anata wa…" _Kiyo's words stuck in her throat. She didn't know how to explain it, but there was a common grief in her parents' eyes whenever they made contact.

"Yes, Kiyo?" Her father encouraged her to continue. She could see his gentle eyes on her.

_"Ōtosan, anata wa…" _She wanted to ask her father if he was sick; she remembered as a child of how sometimes he would clutch his chest as if in excruciating pain. She remembered watching with wide eyes, hidden from her father and the government man, as Himura Kenshin withdrew his kimono and showed the purplish wound spreading across his chest. Four years had passed since then, and Kiyo wondered if the disease had spread. And her father was almost forty-five years old, already starting to become an old man. Kiyo swallowed her sadness and finished what she wanted to say. _"…kanashii desu ka?"_

Her father tilted his head slightly and looked at the cherry blossoms spreading in their path. They had gone passed Tokyo Harbor and were almost home. Kiyo could see her home in the distance. Even when she didn't see his face, she could see him smile. _"Hai," _he said. Then there was silence.

The family of three met Yahiko-san, who was waiting on the porch steps. Kiyo faintly smiled at seeing his spiking black hair and blue kimono that waved in the wind. A satisfied smile was on his face.

"_Okaerinasai, _Kenshin." Her father made no mention of his name, Shinta. Instead, Kiyo saw him smile at her mother's former student. Blue eyes met blue, and Yahiko helped her father up the doorway to their house. _"Tadaima, _Yahiko," she heard him faintly say.

Kiyo felt her mother's hand on her own. "Does _Ōtosan _know about Kenji…?"

"_Hai._ Shinta knows." Her mother let her hand go, and Kiyo felt its absence. It felt as if the warmth had gone from her body.

"Is that…is that why he is so sad?" Kiyo felt her mother take her hand again and lead her to the sound of the wind chimes. Neither of them spoke as mother and daughter stood in the dying day.

"_Iie, _Kiyo. Your father isn't sad about Kenji. Somehow…" Kiyo felt her mother tense. "Somehow…your father understands why Kenji left. Your father is sad because his disease is killing him. He will die very soon."

The wind seemed to blow harder at her mother's words, and Kiyo could hear her own heartbeat. Unbidden, tears fell from her eyes. Kiyo and her father had always been very close. As Kenji drifted away from his father, Kiyo drifted closer to him. She and her father would often walk around Tokyo while her mother was training students, often saying nothing, observing the world around them. Sometimes her father would tell her about the past; the eleventh year of Meiji or the Bakumatsu. He was always with her.

"I do not have the disease, Kiyo." Her mother tried to soothe her crying child. "You are only a child, ten years old, and Kenji still needs me. Your father made me promise to take care of you both when he's gone."

Yahiko-san was behind them suddenly. Even her mother, a _kendo sensei _for the past fifteen years didn't hear her former student. "Kaoru, I'm going to find Kenji. He needs to see his father. I'm going to show the boy what true strength is." Hard determination etched his voice.

Kaoru didn't move from where she was. "Where is Shinta?"

Yahiko's voice softened. "He's asleep, inside."

Suddenly Kiyo didn't notice that Yahiko knew-san about her father's name or that her father was dying. "I want to go with you, Yahiko-san!"

Kiyo saw compassion in Yahiko-san's gaze. "You must stay here, Kiyo." He gave the ten year old a gentle squeeze on her shoulder. Then he was walking to Tokyo Bay, where he would find a ship to take him to Kyoto.

"We should go inside to your father, Kiyo." Silently drying her tears, Kiyo nodded and followed her mother inside.


	4. Chapter 4

Kiyo and her mother stayed by her father's side. He was motionless except for his chest rising up and down slowly. Kiyo looked at her father. He looked smaller sleeping in the futon than when he had stood beside her hours ago. The cross-shaped scar that he had gotten during the Bakumatsu was slowly fading away, Megumi-san said. The female doctor had arrived from Aizu recently, and now was on the other side of Kiyo's father's futon. She had explained carefully to Kiyo that her father had a nameless disease. There was no cure, and her father would die very soon. Kiyo had nodded, noticing the Megumi-san too was struggling to remain calm. "His scar is almost gone," she whispered. Megumi-san suddenly appeared to be older than her years. "The years of happiness and forgiveness has faded it away." She managed to smile. "He has the happiness he deserved, Kaoru," Megumi-san told Kiyo's mother. Himura Kaoru's expression remained sad.

"Kenji can't forgive him," she whispered sullenly. Kiyo had a sudden urge to grasp her mother's hand, but hesitated. Megumi-san shook her head, exasperated with Shinta's oldest child. She had been told that Kenshin had wanted to be known by his childhood name, the one his parents had given him because his days as a swordsman were over. Kiyo had been amazed and shocked at the same time at the story of how her father had gotten his swordsman name. As a child no older than her, he had buried the bandits, slavers, and victims alike after the slaughter that had killed his three _oneechan. _Somehow the boy named Shinta had in his heart to forgive the bandits for their deeds and mourn everyone who had been killed. Hiko Seijūrō had been shocked at the boy's heart, and had renamed him as Kenshin, which meant _heart of sword_.

"That boy is insolent, Kaoru. Shinta had done what many cannot do even today. Protect, forgive, and love." Megumi-san sighed. "I don't understand why Kenji cannot respect his father." She turned away her face from Kiyo's mother and stood. "I'm going to get so fresh air, Kaoru."

_"Hai."_

Mother and daughter were silent for a couple of moments. Then Kiyo's mother started to speak. "I remember when Shinta left to Kyoto to battle Shishio Makoto." Kiyo's expression remained neutral, although she was surprised to have her mother talk about her father's time with her before they were married. Usually Yahiko-san would talk about his early days as a young swordsman. "I remember thinking that I know understood that the world needed him…and that I couldn't change his life. I couldn't change who he was and…" Himura Kaoru took a breath deep from her chest. "Even though I knew, I still wanted to chase him…to make him stop the war inside him." Kiyo looked to see that her mother had tears in her eyes. "I still can't change him, and I think your brother wanted a father who was there. Kenji wanted to change his father even though he knew he couldn't. I think that was why he was angry."

"Kaoru?"

Suddenly Kiyo's mother smiled again; it seemed that the smile came deep from her heart. Kiyo watched as her father's eyes began to focus. As soon as he saw he wife, he smiled as well. It melted Kiyo's heart to see her parents in close intimacy.

_"Okaerinasai, _Shinta."

Her father's smile widened. "Yes, my name…is Shinta." Kiyo felt tears clouding her gaze. Her father was truly home, and seemed happy despite that fact that he knew that he was dying. _"Tadaima." _Kiyo felt her father's eyes on her, and dropped her gaze. She shouldn't be crying as she did two years ago when her father had left for the war.

"I'm home now, Kiyo," her father whispered. He continued to smile and took her hand. "It's alright now." Slowly, Kiyo's emotions began to calm and she stopped crying. Her father's hands were warm and she was comforted.

_"Okaerinasai, Ōtosan." _Her voice was not the one who had spoken. Kiyo looked behind her and saw her brother Kenji slightly behind her. He held no sword in his hands. Kiyo was rejoiced to see that there was a sense of peace as Kenji gazed at his father; unlike the gaze that had spoken in volumes of resentment. Yahiko-san was beside their mother, who had his hand on her shoulder.

Kiyo's father's smile was a smile from the heart. _"Tadaima, _Kenji."

Their father struggled to sit up. _"Gomenasai."_

Kenji didn't smile. In fact, his expression suggested remorse. "Don't say that to a son who ran away from home."

"I forgive you, son."

Later in the day, Kiyo and Kenji saw that their father was gone from his futon. There was also missing. Yahiko-san and Tsubame-san, his self-denied _kanojo_, searched for the beloved husband and wife. It was Kiyo who found them. She saw her parents lying by a _sakura _tree. Her father's head was in her lap, and her mother looked more peaceful than the day Kiyo's father had come home. Kenji trailed behind his sister, his _sakubatō_ chinking faintly. The two children sat beside her parents as their mother talked to their father.

"I wonder how long the _sakura_ will last? Kenji, Yahiko, Tsubame-chan, Megumi-san, and Tae-san, I want to go to a _sakura _viewing and invite everybody. And, next year, and the year after next. Then Yahiko might be a father. Shinta? You're tired, aren't you?"

Their mother stroked their father's cheek where the cross-shaped scar had been. It had ceased to exist.

"Finally…it's finally disappeared," their mother whispered as tears trailed down their father's still face.

Himura Kaoru cradled her husband's head in her arms and sobbed. Somehow Kiyo and Kenji did not cry the day their father had died as their mother had. They felt strangely at peace, and comforted their mother, holding each of her hands in one of theirs.


	5. Epilogue

The Himura family each set down _sakura _on the grave before them. The grave was plain, with only the name, date of birth and date of death carved into it. Himura Shinta had passed away two years ago. His children, Kenji now sixteen, and Kiyo, now twelve, lived on in his memory and legacy. Their mother would have come, but she wanted Chizuru to see the grave of her _kare_'s father to make a connection to her future family. Chizuru was slim and dark-haired, unlike Kiyo and Kenji, who had inherited their father's red hair. She was sweet and quiet, perfect for Kenji's fierceness and unpredictable emotions. The girl stood and stroked Kenji's cheek. "Your father was an amazing man," she whispered.

Kiyo answered for her brother, who had quieted morosely at the mention of their father. Her brother had come to respect the father he never knew. _"Hai, _he was."

The four of them walked slowly to the house, where their mother was waiting for them.

_You will never be forgotten, Ōtosan, _Kiyo thought.


End file.
